Past efforts to recycle at Hoban have not been very successful, but Judy Mohan's environmental science class is planning to change this.

The class is initiating an aluminum recycling program and is trying to educate students on the importance of recycling.

According to Mohan, one reason recycling is important is to conserve energy.

"Bauxite, the raw material used in making aluminum cans, is costly in terms of energy to process from its raw state," she said. "We could save a lot of energy by recycling already processed aluminum cans instead of unnecessarily mining more bauxite."

Mary Heyden, Hoban's cafeteria manager, said students throw away approximately 350 aluminum cans every day. According to AnchorageRecycling.com, recycling one aluminum can saves the energy equivalent of six ounces of gasoline. This means that Hoban disposes of about $4,800 worth of energy every year.

The students' plan is to provide and monitor recycling bins in the cafeteria. Three of every four bags of cans collected will be taken to the fire station to be cashed in. The money will be donated to the Burn Trauma Center of Children's Hospital. The fourth bag's proceeds will be used to fund field trips and other materials for the class.

The new recycling program is not the first attempt to launch such a program at Hoban. In the 2001-02 school year, Hoban recycled aluminum cans. However, some careless students would dump half-full cans into the bins, causing problems. Many students were unaware that Hoban even had recycling for cans. One may wonder whether this attempt at beginning another recycling program is going to work.

Junior Andrea Graham, a member of the class, thinks student awareness will be the key to success.

"We don't want a repeat of the problems we had in the past," she said. "We want a school-wide informed attitude about recycling this time around."

Mohan thinks students have done a good job organizing the program.

"We've pinpointed many of the problems from the past, one of which is transportation," she said.

Solo Hovis, Hoban's business manager and an avid recycler, has volunteered to transport the cans to the collection center.

"To me, recycling is very important," Hovis said. "I recycle everything that is recyclable at home and at school."

Transportation was not the only problem with past programs.ot enough bins were set out and available for everyone to recycle. Mohan is optimistic.

"The class has worked hard to place the right number of containers in the right places," she said.

The class hopes to begin recycling paper and plastic too if the new recycling program is a success. They hope to launch the new program around Nov. 15, which is America Recycles Day.